Are you concerned you have a problem with pornography?
Is porn addiction even real?
Pornography is controversial The validity of whether Porn Addiction is real is a debatable topic. However, viewing too many sex videos can interrupt your daily life and damage your relationship. Learn about Porn Addiction Effects and Treatment in Detail.
What Is Porn Addiction?
Porn Addiction is defined as viewing pornography to the point that it starts interfering with your relationships, ability to function, and daily life.
Please note watching sexual content is quite common. Some people may not be interested in it, some partakes in it occasionally, but some become regular viewers.
But, the question is, is it an addiction?
The American Psychiatric Association does not officially recognize porn addiction. Some research suggests that it is not a real condition due to a lack of definitive diagnostic criteria.
In addition, people do not talk about it openly, so it is difficult to know how many people enjoy porn daily and for how many it becomes a compulsion impossible to resist.
Still, many have reported experiencing unstoppable urges to watch sex videos to the extent that it starts causing legit problems like other behavioral addictions, and research suggests behavioural addictions can be serious.
Few doctors even consider porn addiction a hypersexual disorder, an umbrella term that includes behavioural changes such as too much watching sexual content and too much masturbation.
What Are The Signs Of Porn Addiction?
Adult content viewing habit may become a cause of concern if:
- The amount of time being spent watching pornography keeps growing.
- Continuously losing track of time while watching adult content.
- Have a strong feeling that you to fix porn that makes you feel higher.
- Feeling guilty about Porn Addiction Effects
- Most of the time, your mind is consumed with thoughts of pornography even if you are watching it or not.
- Ashamed and depressed about watching porn and feeling anxious while trying to hide that you watch it.
- Continue to watch adult videos even if it is causing a problem in your relationship, at home, at work despite of all your efforts and attempt to manage it.
- Looking for loneliness most of the time leading to social withdrawal
- Spending most of your time browsing online porn sites and neglecting your responsibilities, healthy eating, and sleep.
- To watch porn, you engaging yourself in risky behaviors such as watching porn at work
- Unable to enjoy yourself with your partner without first watching sex videos
- Sex life becomes less satisfying, leading to relationship issues
- Insisting your partner to act out porn fantasies even if they are not interested.
- Progressively viewing more extreme adult content to get the same release that was once offered by petite porn.
- Spending large sum money on watching porn at the expense of family necessities or daily expense
- Watching adult content to cope with anxiety, insomnia, depression, and other mental health issues.
What Causes Porn Addiction
Sex is gratifying. Watching pornography activates dopamine. The intense rush of dopamine causes a feeling of reward and pleasure. However, it is hard to say why watching pornography sometimes escalates to a level of uncontrolled behavior.
At the start, a person watches porn because they enjoy the rush of dopamine. With the time, they find themselves wanting that rush more often. By then, you may not realize that these viewing habits may cause a problem or make you feel bad.
Later on, over time, your body may produce less dopamine, and to feel the dopamine rush, you rely on substance abuse or unhealthy behavior that leads to addiction.
Internet pornography addiction involves neural processes similar to substance abuse, and just like other behavioral addictions, even if you try to stop; you are unable to resist the intense desire to watch porn.
Is Porn Addiction or Compulsion?
Another topic of debate is whether too much porn is out of compulsion or addiction. Compulsion is an intense urge to do something leading to repetitive behavior without any rational motivation.
On the other hand, addiction is unable to stop unhealthy behavior despite experiencing negative consequences.
Whether it is porn addiction and compulsion, there is a lack of control, and both can be uncomfortable for the person to deal with. Do not worry, as there are ways to regain control.
Ways To Gain Control Over Watching Porn On Your Own
- If you are have a hard time getting over pornography, here are a few tips to help you deal with pornography:
- Delete bookmarks and electronic porn on all your devices
- Discard your hard copy porn collection
- Install anti-porn software on all your electronic devices. Then, take someone else to help so that you will not get the password.
- Whenever the urge to watch porn hits, you choose to do other activities, such as yoga, meditation, exercise, read a book, go for a walk, or get yourself involved in your hobbies such as painting, dancing, writing, or singing.
- Keep reminding yourself of the Porn Addiction Effects whenever you want to watch it.
- Consider your triggers and try to avoid them. For example, avoid talking about adult content.
- Talk to someone you trust about your problem, who can ask you about your habit and hold you accountable.
- Maintain a journal to write down your experience, triggers to avoid, track setbacks, set reminders, and record alternate activities that work for you.
Porn addiction is a topic that requires more research to completely understand whether this behavior can be classified as an actual addiction.
Nevertheless, we cannot deny that there are negative consequences of compulsive pornography consumption.
Therefore, there is a need to understand Porn Addiction Effects and take back control of your life to improve your quality of living. Understand you are not alone in this journey.
If you or any family members suffering from porn addiction have tried to quit on their own but were unsuccessful, consider seeking professional help to overcome this healthy behavior.
